Hyderabad: Harassment at work is an issue that still needs to be taken seriously with predators lurking behind faces with power or position with women as the most vulnerable gender.
National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) management’s inaction in similar harassment issue by the institution’s stenographer led to as many as 56 women taking to streets in Hyderabad protesting against the management’s inaction, demanding the removal of the accused, The Wire reports.
It was in October 2018, when a staff supervisor with the institution Ratna Kumari had filed a complaint against the accused stenographer D Srinivas Reddy.
Taking to a news source she said: “Srinivas used to sexually harass women employees who would attend to his cabin. He would hold the women staff by their hips, click their photographs without consent and invite them home to sleep with him.”
The victims were continuously threatened by the NIFT authorities to compromise in order to keep their jobs but by June 2019 as many as 56 women protested against the management.
Just a day after the protest all the 56 victims were dismissed without following the due process.
However, on June 20, all the women were reinstated to work after the tender demanding the termination of all the existing workers and deploying a new workforce, was invalidated.
Covering the issue at the campus revealed the students were not present in the college because they had holidays and only came to know about the incidents through social media.
One of the students on the condition of anonymity said things were this clear back then as most of the facts were not stated and under wraps.
When asked how does it feel with the accused still a part of the institution the students replied they were shocked to see him again and that now they are scared.
Well, students don’t have that unity to bring about some change and that is where they lack as they are no established student union in the college.